School Committee: May 28, 2024

Transcript captured from MHTV’s Vimeo auto-captioning. No speaker labels; proper names and dollar figures occasionally misheard. Click any timecode to jump to that moment in the source video.

0:01 Okay, so I’ll call us to order at seven at 7 34. Um, and we’ll open for accommodations.

0:13 Nope. Don’t have any. Um, I’m gonna take a moment to

0:19 commend all of our seniors, all of, um, their parents and guardians and family members. Um, and Friday is our graduation. So much goes into getting these kids through, through everything they’ve gone through and through these last few weeks. Um, and of course, our teachers who, who have, you know, been here for all 13 years of their journey here. Um, it’s a big day. I hope everyone really has fun and, um, really can celebrate and be safe. Um, ‘cause that’s, you know, these celebrations also. We wanna remember that. So I just wanna commend everybody and, and wish you well. And, um, congrats. Yay. So that’s our seniors, um, public comment.

1:06 Do you wanna just come up and state your name and address for the record

1:15 Drive and Marble Marblehead, of course. Okay. So I know that, um, the school committee members got my letter asking about if, um, the woman who took down the Black Lives Matter flag was on the search committee and you responded back that you had no purview. Then I went to the superintendent. She says, well, she has all the confidence in Michelle Carlson. Then I contact Carlson and she says, I’ll take it under advisement. I thought the whole purpose of you communicating with the rest of the community, it’s gonna be transparency. I don’t see that. And I’ll tell you if she was on that committee that was so wrong in so many levels

2:02 of putting her on that. And then the other thing is, um, you’re gonna be, you know, introducing the last man standing for superintendent and he left his other job because he couldn’t get along with the school committee. Do you really think he’s gonna be able to get along with you guys with everything that’s been happening over the last year? I know you’re not gonna answer my questions, but, you know, let’s see if he wants to take you guys on.

2:30 Thank you. If there’s anybody online, just raise your hand. Um, Allison. Oh, I have to make you a co-host so that you can unmute as you wish. Hold on one second. I, you? Yes, yes. Okay. Um, I did, oh, wait one second. I’m gonna have Frank turn you up. Try again. Can you hear me now? Yes. Okay. Um, I just, I wanted to make sure, um, to actually respond to Ms. McCarrison. I know it’s not our normal practice. Uh, I’m actually on the, um, the search committee for the new athletic director and it’s Ms.

3:16 Carlson’s policy that she does not share who is on her search committees. She does the entire thing. Um, so it’s not hiding behind purview. I do think that this is just like a really important thing to point out. This isn’t the school committee lacking transparency. It’s not something we have any control over. It’s Ms. Carlson’s policy to not share who is on the search committees until the search is over. That’s her policy. Um, and I think that that’s important to point out. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. Um, if there’s any other hands, um, I do not into CE. Okay. That brings us to, um, our

4:01 inter our interim superintendent search discussion. Last, I’m losing track of time. Last Wednesday, we performed site visits, um, in shifts because, you know, we don’t ever wanna have more of us there at a time than we’re, than we can. So Jen and I attended, um, in the morning and during which time we met with some central office personnel. We, um, got to meet with a lot of teachers from an elementary school, um, principals, parents. They were having, um, an event that day. And then later in the day, Al and Brian went. So I’m gonna open it up so that people can give some, some feedback on what they saw, what their thoughts were.

4:46 This is really the first time we’re hearing, I didn’t even know all the pieces of what you guys saw and did. So, um, we’re gonna hear from what people’s experiences were. So if you wanna start Brian. Sure. Al and I met with a school committee member and an elementary principal that had been in their district for 19 years. And to summarize our discussions, Mr. OU has a very strong superintendent. His evaluations were always very proficient. He received positive feedback from the families and the teachers in all categories. He’s a good communicator, has good skills, both in oration and in writing. He’s a real, he has a real open door policy that families and staff used. In the latter meeting with, uh, John, we did, he did state

5:33 to us that he meets and talks to ‘em after they provided him the information that they had already gone through the chain of command before he talks to them. Under John’s superintendency, they passed every budget each year. In the 17 years he was there with an increase of four to 8% each year. Since John’s been with them, there’s been no need to pink slip the employees at the end of the year, which we’ve done here in this district years ago, when there was a budget concern, uh, he meets regularly and solid relationship with the union. Contract negotiations went well with the bargaining teams. His management style, he’s very real open door policy that works. He handles employee issues very well. Over the years, he’s had to let go of several staff members. There were never any reversals or lawsuits.

6:20 He remains calm during a crisis and can manage the complex issues as they come up. He visits schools frequently and likes to participate with the students. And he even said to us sometimes when being a superintendent’s tough, he likes to go to the classroom and sit down with third graders. So that’s because it renews his reason why he wanted to be a superintendent. It’s the kids. Um, he has good relations with the PTO. He has strong relations with parents. He will first ensure that they work within the chain of command. If not, he helps connect them to the right staff people. He will have the staff’s back. However, if he believes the parents are correct, he will support the parents. He will, however, immediately meet with the appropriate staff and inform them of the facts surrounding the issue that he determined to be

7:06 and explained his ruling as he made it. So it was, overall, it was a very good conversations with both the school committee person and the principal of the elementary school and with John afterwards. I feel very comfortable with what we heard. I’ll let Al speak to that too. If he’s on C it says, uh, a’s iPhone. I’m not sure if that’s al possibly not. Jen, if you wanna speak A little bit. Yeah, just wanna make sure Al’s not out there. Sure. He’s Not. Ask him to raise hand if he’s thought, Al if you’re out there, raise your hand. Something must have come up. ‘cause he’s always been very communicative. Yeah. Okay. Um, so I will go, so let me make a, I’d like to make a couple of pretty preceding comments. One, just to clarify what chair, uh, Fox was explaining

7:54 that, um, in order for us to not, um, be violating open meeting laws, we need to not need, chose not to be as a quorum, uh, which would be three members. Um, at the, um, at the visit we probably could have in terms of the open meeting law, as long as we weren’t discussing anything that would potentially be deliberated upon. But I think that it was in all of our best interest to do that. So that was why we were in two separate groups, um, of no more than two of us. Um, and it worked out. I think it worked out fine. Um, the other thing I’d like to say too, and I’m gonna say this, I think until we get to the end of this process, I’ve been through multiple searches for permanent superintendents and interim superintendents. And unlike other searches in town, unlike other searches for some of our administration, um, the, we had an abundance

8:41 of candidates in this process. And throughout this process between, um, going through the initial round of candidates and discussing who we wanted to, um, interview, um, for the first round. And then the second time when we went to the final candidates, um, in open session, which we would’ve done as well, um, we had two candidates and one chose to drop out, which is very, very common. This Is common. If I, I’m just gonna interrupt you. I actually, for forgot, I I found out, um, I more information on that over the weekend. Yeah. When it’s once it became public. Yeah. At the time, um, when, when Barbara Alda had reached out, she had said she was withdrawing. She, um, her, her plans for the fall had changed. And if we, um, now all this makes sense. Yeah.

9:29 The time, it kind of didn’t, but now it all makes sense. Um, if we had, were going to be looking for someone in the future, she would also be interested. Lo and behold, um, her current district she’s in made it public. They chose, oh, she’s currently the interim, um, director of student services. They, um, are retaining her as the, in their interim superintendent for next year. So she’s staying in the district. She’s in for one more year. So that explains her reasoning there. Sorry, Jen. So, and which is, which is common in this process that I’ve seen in my experience over the last number of years. Um, so, so Sarah and I went down, um, had an opportunity to meet for, um, a good period of time with, uh, superintendent Roberto. Um, had a great conversation.

10:14 Um, we then had an opportunity to meet with the current assistant superintendent. Um, we had a great conversation with her. Um, she is, um, I don’t wanna put this properly. She’s, um, very sad to see him leaving. Um, really was disappointed that he was not going to be staying on. Um, and had very positive things to say about her, many, many years of working with him, um, as in the school district. Um, the other thing too, which I think Brian you touched on and that we covered in great detail with, uh, John, was his history in that district. He’s been there for 18 years, which is a long time. Can can you speak up? Can, uh, you know what, I have a bit of a sore throat, so I’m going to do the best I can, but, um, apologize if you can’t hear me. Um, but he been in the district for 18 years, started out

11:01 as a teacher, um, was promoted to assistant principal, principal, director of student services for, for several years or many years. And then I believe rights as superintendent. I don’t think he served as assistant superintendent. Um, but I can’t remember. But he’s had multiple years of administrative experience, particularly as director of student services, which I think to me is very important, um, that he’s been in, been in that role and has served in that role. So Sarah and I then went to attended a, for lack of a better term, a field day, um, which I’m going to get into in just a moment. But it was a field day at one of the elementary schools, which is a K five, K five, K five school. And we went and they were in the midst of the, of the field day outside in the, um,

11:47 Unified games. Yeah, I’m gonna talk about that in just a minute. Um, outside, in the, you know, in the playground area. And we came in and, you know, he sort of walked a little bit away from us. Sarah and I held back a little bit, so nobody knew who we were. I, I don’t think. And he literally had teachers running up to him, hugging him. Um, so happy to see him mean it was really genuine. Um, in terms of his relationship, clearly with his staff. Um, we attended these unified games, which is something I think we wanna talk about, um, as we get further down this. But the uni, he has a, Swanee has a unified school district, which is, we’ve come to find out a program with Special Olympics, which is focused on inclusion for all students, both regular education students and special education students. And it is, it is beyond just the,

12:35 or not just beyond the inclusion model and the co-teaching model. And it involves all aspects of the school experience. In this particular event, which was a unified day, it was a series of games, basically racists, things like that for all of the students. But it was focused on the students, um, with special needs and the peer students of general education, students being, um, uh, sort of peer buddies, I guess, and working with them. But it was celebrating the abilities of the students with special needs. So it was really very interesting. Um, and I learned a lot. And I think we have a lot more to learn, but it was very, very exciting. And they’ve been doing this for several years now. And towards the end of our time there, we may,

13:22 there may be 30 or 40 minutes, the direct, the current director of special education came over and talked to Sarah and I for quite a while. Um, and he talked, um, effusively about working with, um, John Du, um, particularly around the open door policy that Brian, you talked about. And everyone we spoke to, and particularly the special education direct student services director, talked about the open door policy and how supported he has felt throughout his career. He was, he was promoted by John into this role, um, and extremely enthusiastic and really gave a lot of that credit to, to John, um, and had nothing but positive things to say for a very long period of time. So I think that’s wonderful. Um, you know, I, I felt very, very positive.

14:10 I felt it was very genuine what we were seeing there with staff, see, with, with teachers, with administrative staff and with parents, um, and students, you know, high fiving him and all, all of that stuff. So, um, I had a very positive experience and took away, um, a tremendous amount of respect for him and, um, want to learn a lot more also about this unified school district. So one of the examples, um, that the special director special education shared with us, and this was not scheduled meeting with him. He was there for the unified games. We start, you know, we, we made sure to kind of circle the, the area. Um, I would just go up to ran a teacher and start talking and asking. And, and so we made our way to this gentleman.

14:58 Um, and when he was giving examples, like he said, it really makes a difference when you have a leader that really understands all the pieces of everything. And he was, he was, gave multiple examples. But for instance, we were outside by a, a, a playground. And it will say it was, it was inclusive, the space, but it was nowhere near the bright shiny playgrounds we have here. It was like an older fashioned playground, but they had made sure it could be inclusive. He said, he waved his hand, he said, you know, look at the playground. Everyone thinks, you know, okay, all the kids get to come out and they get to play together where that’s equity. And he’s like, but it’s not because, you know, certain kids can’t get in and outta that swing. So John knows you need to get another, uh, a special type of swing.

15:44 But then he realizes that when you get the special type swing, you need to talk to your facilities guy because you need to change the depth of your mulch and this and that. And he, he said, and to work with someone who realizes there’s a domino effect to creating true inclusion, you can’t just check the box. You can’t just say, I am doing things. You have to know, you know, all the, the facilities ramifications, the budget ramification, like how to truly be inclusive and, and to see this working and coming to fruition in a district that does it on a much lower per student dollar than I still cannot figure out how they’re, they’re doing it, um, with their finances the way they are.

16:29 But that hopefully is something we can figure out. Um, but in people weren’t standing back and waiting for him to approach them. At one point he was talking to us and just the positioning of it, because, you know, it’s a field day structure. He can’t really see the people behind him. There were people waiting, there were teachers and parents waiting for their turn to say hi. Like, this was the type of environment. And I just, I, I’ve said this a million times, you can, people can learn a skill. You can’t learn a personality. And, um, that was really, really powerful. And the other thing the special education director said to us was, um, John’s, you know, we talked about the open door policy,

17:15 and he said, he’s not here to micromanage. He’s here to, to help you when you need help. But to say, you go with that idea, you go fly, come back and let me know what I can, what, what if you need more. If you need more feedback, he’s there to, to make sure you are successful and give you feedback on if you’re successful. But he’s not here to micromanage. You’re gonna, you’re gonna get a chance to be successful in your area and in your idea. And he’s there to support you and to evaluate and help to guide you if you need to pivot. So that was really, really powerful. Um, I got there earlier, a little bit earlier than Jed does. I’ve, I’m, or did, um, I have a habit of being painfully early for things. And there was this setting there with this little park,

18:03 and I saw three women, you know, parked their cars and they were meeting up for coffee. And I thought, well, I got nothing to lose. So I parked and I went over and I said, so are you happy with the schools here? And two of them were from out of town. They were friends, old friends meeting up, and one of them, um, didn’t have children in the schools anymore. But, you know, she said, I can tell you when my kids were here, we had heard a lot of complaints. Her kids were like, 20 some odd years ago. She goes, but we don’t hear complaints right now. And I thought, well, that’s something that’s a positive. Um, so it was, I, I was, I was, I left there feeling very, um, comfortable. And especially with these unified games, I can’t wait to, to learn more about it because it, it’s not a heavy financial lift.

18:51 Um, and I, I think our community is screaming for more inclusion. They really want it. And if someone can bring that to the table, then I think that would be really great. Um, so Allison, do you have questions for us or, or areas you want us to flesh out more?

19:14 I think I’ve seen a head shake. No. No. Okay. Uh, yeah. Nope, I’m good. Um, I think when I, um, make some phone calls later this week, and I know we’ll have reference checks and stuff. I’m that, well, I trust you guys. Okay. I did, I did have something I forgot to say. Oh, yes. Is that Yes. When I, when Al and I met with the school committee person and the principal, and later on with John, we asked the pointed question, why, why after all these years are you leaving? Why before the end of the year, what happened? And they were very candid. The school committee person had been on three terms. So he had been on there for a while. He said, the last couple of people that got elected for whatever reason, just kept picking fights with him over everything.

20:00 And got to the point where he was constantly trying to justify himself to the newcomers. And he just finally said, after all these years, I don’t need it anymore. You know? And so he decided at that point, they’re not gonna change the way they treated him. And the principal, especially in the school committee person said, I, I just don’t understand it. We had such a working relationship all of a sudden it just deteriorated with the last people that joined the school committee. So they gave a pretty plausible explanation about what happened. And the other point that they made is, during this part of his life, he had, John had suffered two severe personal, um, losses, and yet he still functioned very well as a superintendent. Those personal losses did not affect his ability to do his work.

20:46 So, Alright. So, um, I would like to hear, ask for a motion and we can discuss more after that. Um, ask for a motion to invite John OU to move on to the next stage, which would be coming and doing a day in district here. Um, during which time he would meet with, um, we’d have several different smaller meetings. He would meet with our administrative team, our, um, central office team. Then he would have a meeting with staff, which would be, um, open to all staff after school, very similar to what we’ve done with previous. Um, he would have one with community members and then we would be, have another Google form to solicit feedback from that.

21:32 Um, because we are pushing up against some, some timelines. Um, as we get into June, I would like to have him come for his day in district on Monday. Um, and then that will allow us to make those forms live, give people 48 hours, um, to, to do responses. I’m hoping we get some more responses. Last time we left it up for several days and, um, we only, we had less than a handful of people give responses. Um, so I’m, I’m hoping more people are involved this, this time. Um, so we will be able to leave that open till Wednesday, at which point Wednesday night when I close it, I will send those responses to the school committee members. I will a, I will ask for, um, some grace with,

22:20 I know we tried to get them 48, give people 48 hours to, to read through things. But we have a meeting next Thursday, so, um, just ask that people allocate some time from Wednesday night to Thursday to read through those responses so we can make sure we’re using that community feedback. And then deliberate on, um, next steps on next Thursday night. So can I have that, uh, so moved. So mo, wait, I’m gonna simplify the motion. That’s a long one. The motion would be to move John Ew. Onto the site visit in Marblehead seat. So moved. Jen Schaffner Seconded. Second by Brian Oda discussion. Now during these open sessions, um, we’re going to invite all parties that are interested in attending it, right? Yeah. So like for instance,

23:06 the staff may not be during the staff one. Yeah. It will be only for staff. Right? Um, now When we do the staff one, will it be in a particular school or be it be it here? It’ll be here in it. Yeah. We, that’s what we’ve done in the past. We’ve had it here and then after hours. Yeah, we usually do it. Um, I’ll work out the logistics. Um, Monday Oh, is the I know we’re bargaining Monday. Yeah. Right. And we’re posted for here. So, um, wanna do Tuesday? If I did Monday three to probably like three 30, we could push bargaining back to four 30. You think? To give you an hour, maybe an hour With this? Do you think that’s

23:51 sufficient? Okay. And then, um,

23:58 Shoot, I just wanna give that time. Um, well, we would do A community event probably in the evening. No. Oh, we could still be bargaining though. Well, we don’t have to be at the community event. We don’t have, yeah, we don’t have to be at the community event. Um, okay. I mean, school, I will work out the logistic pieces of that and I I can I talk to you about some timing later on? Okay. Um, but we’ll, we’ll do that for Monday. Okay. Um, ‘cause there was an idea of doing a community event earlier in the day for an hour and later in the day. Okay. Yeah. So that some parents who have little ones in school prefer to keep the evening open. Yeah. So I wanna make it available as to as many people as possible. Yeah. Um, so that would be Monday and then we would be deliberating on Friday.

24:44 Um, Thursday. Thursday, yes. So we have a motion and it was seconded. All in favor of moving John. Ew. To the next stage. Um, we roll call vote. Allison. Taylor In favor? Brian. Oda in favor. Jen Schaffner in favor, Sarah Fox in favor? Motion carries forward to zero. Um, okay. So great. Hey, I’ll call him. I don’t see any, yeah. So I will, you’ll call him tonight. Yes, I will. So that brings us to the Sick bank, sick Leave Bank discussion. Um, we, as we know, last year had started this process, um, and then

25:29 Through the events of the summer, um, this did, you know, we, we, we were not as a school committee aware that the, this had been put into use. Um, last week, uh, the MEA presidents, um, Jonathan and Sally made, um, a statement regarding the Sick Leave bank, just stating that they had, um, signed this on June 16th. And, um, Kind of referenced that the school committee had not gotten to that point yet. Um, after that I went home.

26:16 So just to give everybody some timeline, the school committee had agreed to enter into this discussion. I attended one meeting on May 10th with Dr. Bucky, Michelle Cresta, Jonathan Heller and Sally Shery of 23 of 23 at this time. Um, Jonathan and Sally brought a proposal. Michelle and Dr. Bucky had brought a proposal. They were pretty aligned. There wasn’t a lot of differences. There’s a few det like minor details. And what it was decided at that point was they were gonna flesh out those like very minor pieces. Um, and then when it was fully baked, if you will bring it back to the school committee for our review, um, there was a meeting on June 15th, um, it was the last meeting for the elections.

27:03 Uh, Sally brought the, had brought this up to our, at my attention. She had found the meeting. And during this meeting, um, Dr. Bucky in, in part of his update, had let us know that he had gotten to a point of, um, resolution with the union and would be bringing that forward to us. And we, you know, we’re very happy to see that coming

27:27 through all the events. We all know, you know, that things changed over the summer. And full disclosure, we spent a lot of time, um, with, through some transitions, um, during the process of bargaining, this came up again when we were talking about MOUs and the, the union had come and said there was one from like a year ago that was, I don’t, I can’t remember it off the top of my head, but that one was already signed, sealed, delivered. Um, that one would be, you know, there was no question on that. So that was the stipends, I think. And that the stipends, yeah. Um, that had been ratified and voted the Sick Leave Bank. Um, the union had stated at that point they had thought it was rat ratified, voted

28:14 and signed, and then Jonathan and Sally came last week. So, um, and made the statement that you guys had thought it was ratified and signed. I went back in to try to find some documentation ‘cause I had never seen until the union handed this to us a few weeks ago. I had never seen a finalized version, um, of it. So it certainly didn’t come before us to be ratified. Um, so I went back in my emails to try to find if there’s an electronic version that had been sent, you know, from Dr. Bucky or from anybody. ‘cause even when you gave it to us last, uh, couple weeks ago, you just gave us the hard copy. What I found was a Google doc that you had sent on May 9th and invited, or Jonathan had sent on May 9th, inviting Michelle Cresta, John Bucky, myself,

29:01 Jonathan Heller and Sally to contribute to this. I had never opened or contributed or done anything with it. ‘cause quite frankly, I don’t, I don’t use Google Docs and technology escapes me to a certain extent. Um, I clicked on the link to see, you know, so that would, that would provide us some information on the edits throughout it. At that point, it said it was last edited in March of 2024 by Anthony Peri, at which time I didn’t know what that meant. So we were able to, uh, work with Steven KK Tech. We have a program that, um, we utilize to, I guess, um, with students with Google Docs.

29:49 Apparently you can check if when things are done with keystrokes and things like that. So, you know, if students are using AI copy and paste and things like that, Steven was able to recreate the document with all the keystrokes of what happened. Um, and then you can see it played through a video. Um, Frank, can you pull it up? Um, in the video you can see the signature lines with the dates of June 16th, 2023 were added in Octo on October 5th, 2023. So the point of this being the, I just that the school committee

30:36 wasn’t aware of this, had not seen this document. And I, and this is important because there’s a lot of misinformation floating around the community right now that things are happening or not happening. And it’s really important to see that there’s no way we had this document to sign on June 16th. ‘cause the signature lines weren’t even created to October 5th, 2020 fifth. Three. This is separate from the situation of the Sick Leave Bank. It’s separate. I’m required, I was required to share this with the school committee.

31:18 It open session in open session, which I have to tell you, I’m, I’m having trouble with right now. Um, we will go into executive session to talk about what to do with the Sick Leave Bank. I think these are two separate issues. I really, really encourage everybody to look at these as two separate things. Um, I think that the content of the Sick Leave Bank has not been, you can see in this document, I, I have no reason to believe the content has been changed. Um, so, so I, I think it’s really important to say that, um, this is, this is something that

32:04 as a school committee last spring, we felt we wanted to enter into. I understand it’s a new school committee and we’ll go into executive session to talk about this. But there are two separate situations here. And the reason why this had to be put on for tonight is we do have an approval for the sick Leave bank waiting. And I think it’s important that this is taken care of and addressed so that if there’s someone waiting to use this, they have that opportunity. Um, and the other piece we can figure out, you know, how to move forward through that. But, um, I do, I do just really encourage everybody to remember that, um,

32:50 that, you know, this is our staff. We value our staff and, um, we wanna make sure that if there’s extenuating circumstances that, you know, we’re supporting our staff.

33:06 So I think, um, yeah, I think there’s two separate issues here. ‘cause it does, apparently we have been acting on the sec sick bank. I Believe we have dispersed. Yeah. So that has been in practice, the issue is around this issue and the ratification. Um, and so it does, um, help explain some of the questions that I had around this document because it didn’t appear that anybody had, like Michelle Cresta was unaware of a signed document. I she had Knew of the document. She did not, she had not seen a signed version. Signed version. Yes. She had not seen one with signature lines. Right. Um, and also I had some questions originally ‘cause it doesn’t look like the typical format of an, of a agreed upon MOU, which would usually have the letterhead

33:52 of the school district and, and all of that. So, um, so I just, I think it, you know, there are obviously some questions about the timing, um, on this, um, which is concerning. I think it’s important to separate pieces. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. I think It’s really important to separate pieces. Yeah. So, um, and I think that’s the piece we’ll go into executive session. We will be coming back out of exec executive session, hopefully to take a vote on ratifying

34:21 This, um, sick leave. Um, so hopefully this will be short. Um, and then we can come back out and do that. But I will ask for a motion and vote to meet an executive session pursuant to Mass General Law Chapter 30 a section 21 A for the following purpose, purpose three, to discuss strategy with respect to and in preparation for collective bargaining with the Marblehead Education Association unit, a unit permanent substitutes, unit tutors, unit paraprofessionals, and unit custodians. Because an open discussion may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the committee. With the intent to return to open session, we will be returning to open session. Um, so that was the motion. So Moved. Moved by Jen Schaffner. Seconded. Seconded by Brian Oda. Roll call vote. Allison Taylor

35:09 In favor. Brian Oda in favor, Jen Schaffner in favor, Sarah Fox in favor. Motion carries four to zero. So I will call us into executive session.

35:22 So I’ll call us back into open session at 8 26.

35:31 Um, I will ask for a motion to approve the Sick Leave bank as proposed. Um, the only edit being just that we can put it on our letterhead like we typically do and format it. Um, but the content and being the in Yeah. The new dates. Um, but to approve at approve the Sick Leave Bank, um, as presented. So Moved. So moved. Second. Jen Schaffner,

36:04 Um, seconded by Allison Taylor up for discussion?

36:09 Anybody? No. Okay. Um, so we’ll do a roll call Boat. Allison Taylor In favor? Brian. Oda In favor? Jen Schaffner in favor, Sarah Fox in favor. Motion carries four to zero. The Sick Leave Bank is approved. Um, I will ask, I will provide this to Lisa and ask her just to put it on our letter, the district letterhead and, um, what is say Monday? I can have it signed by Friday. Um, I, the pending piece, the pending, um, individual should not have to wait on our signature. That should be approved and be fine. Um, okay. You’ll let Theresa know. We’ll let there Yeah. Yeah, I’ll let her know. Or whoever. Um, so school, that brings us

36:56 to new business school committee announcements and requests. I have, I have one request. Yeah. Can we get somebody to catch us up on minutes for the school committee meetings where we just did one for OC February? It’s hard to remember that far back exactly what was said at each meeting. Okay. We, um, we should have them, we should have them ready by the next school committee meeting if things work optimally. Is there some Reason why I will speak, um, to the clerk that is doing that and ask her if, um, by our June 20th meeting or Yeah, June 20th that we’re fully cut up, cut up? I don’t think it’s real. I don’t think it’s realistic to be Thursday fully cut up for next week. No, no. I’m saying that we have a plan to get us too big. Fully. Yeah. Yeah. ‘cause I, I don’t know how,

37:43 if we’re gonna communicate well with the public, we need to publish these minutes as soon as we get done a meeting Almost. Yes. Yes. Um, so we will, I will reach out to her and do that. Um, any other school committee announcements and requests?

38:00 Okay. Um, correspondence. We did receive, um, correspondence from the group, marble Headers for Change, um, requesting that we make Thatcher Keyser a member of our bargaining team. Um, just for people unfamiliar with Mass General Law. Um, the, the, the law states that to ratify the contract, um, the town administrator Thatcher will have an equal vote with school committee, school committee members, um, throughout the process. Thatcher here, I Thatcher and I have shared correspondence on this, so it’s probably better if I just read, um,

38:44 Maybe I can’t get down to it. Um, read That. So, um, I’ve spoken each time prior to each of our meetings with Thatcher, each time I have told him what units will be on the agenda. And each time I have shared the format, um, the format has been that each initial meeting for each of the units, um, each side presents their previously drafted proposals. Um, I’ve been sharing with Thatcher that the MEA has chosen a format in which we verbally make our presentations where, you know, it’s not just, we don’t just hand them. There’s there we talk, there’s, we discuss them, um, not discuss. Um, for instance, the MEA will tell us, read us their proposals, and then they’ll explain the reasoning behind it.

39:32 Um, so they’ve charged, it shows in the format in which they verbally present each written element of the proposal. During the discussion, I have said, you are welcome to join us, but we have not begun to, we don’t, we’re not negotiating in these meetings. Those, those things happen during a caucus or after with meetings. Um, in, in between. Um, at, during, I said, you’re welcome to join us. We’ve not been negotiating at these meetings yet. Um, share only sharing proposals at this point. And then again, that in between those meetings, Thatcher has been involved in, he’s been invited to all those in between meetings we have. And, and his feedback has been requested and he’s attended them. He’s attended them. Yeah. Um, Thatcher has consistently replied, um, the quote, that doesn’t sound like a good use of my time,

40:17 but if needed, I’m happy to switch my schedule. He’s always made it clear that bargaining would be a priority for him. Um, but that being, given what he’s doing and also bargaining on his side, that being there for the reading of the proposals wasn’t the time for him to come, come and join us yet. Um, not that he is not prioritizing bargaining. I wanna make that very clear. He has been. Um, it’s just he can read the proposals and then work with us in the intermittent times. Um, we both agreed that each time we met, he would be available for a caucus. Um, but with the format of presentations in the beginning stage, he would wait until the meetings became more active. Um, he’s also been part of our subcommittee meetings with our council and other administrators, um,

41:03 throughout the proposal process. Um, and he’s always been provided copies of all proposals throughout the process. Um, so where this misinformation that came out, um, some of it stating that they were faxed came from, I’m, I’m unsure, but I, we, we have consistently incorporated the town and worked with the town. Um, so I think it Can I also make a comment? Yeah. I think it’s important to note too, that the request, I think in the correspondence was for us to formally vote on, in this case, town administrator onto our subcommittee. And that’s not the general practice. The subcommittee consists of the two school committee members that were voted on, or I guess I guess we voted on or, uh, decided by the school committee.

41:51 Um, and we have o we have people who come and go. We have subject matter experts that come in. Um, we had, you know, our facilities director come in, um, at one point when we were talking to fci, to custodians, um, you know, other administrators come in and they’re not voted on or off the committee. Um, and that would be the same for the town administrator. So, um, he, unlike anybody else, does have a vote, um, with the school committee and has been integral in integral in the process of our strategizing sessions in executive session with the attorney and the full school committee. And I am hopeful he will continue to do that because that has been, um, he, he brings great value to that. So,

42:36 All right folks, Understand that. Um, so that brings us to adjournment at 8 33.